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Free pork for the taking: Strategic planning can lead to a bounty of boar
Mark Balette takes aim on a good eating wild hog with his Darton Bow. Lighted sight pins and the Hawglite help light the hogs up on a dark night. / Photo courtesy of Luke Clayton
By Luke Clayton, Special to Star Local News
Chances are pretty good you either love or hate feral hogs.
If you're a hunter who owns or manages land, you might do both!
Wild hogs are exciting animals to hunt, but they do great damage to the land they share with native wildlife.
Most reports state there are around 2.5 million wild hogs in Texas.
Considering sows reach sexual maturity at 6 months of age and litters average 5-8 piglets, who really knows just how many wild porkers we have. I know from firsthand experience there are plenty, but don't let the sheer numbers of hogs trick you into thinking they are easy to hunt.
They aren't.
Wild porkers are nocturnal by nature and, according to wildlife behaviorists, swine are just below dolphins on the intelligence scale. Many hogs are shot around corn feeders during the last few minutes of shooting light, but at the close of a long deer season with lots of hunter activity in the woods, the best time to collect your wild pork is after the sun sets.
When looking for a spot to hunt hogs at night, I obviously locate an area with good hog sign.
I look for active trails the porkers use regularly while traveling from bedding areas to forage for feed. These hog trails often parallel a creek, river or other drainage, usually several yards back in the cover from the watercourse. Hog trails are relatively easy to spot; trees adjacent these well-used trails are often marked with mud where the hogs stop to rub. Mature boars often use their tusks to mark the trees.
Once you find the hog's travel route, you need to look the country over closely and choose a spot to set your feeder.
Rather than larger 55-gallon feeders, which are often used to attract deer, I much prefer smaller feeders that can be hung from tree limbs. Keep in mind that corn will have to be packed into these remote spots; I usually use a couple of 5-gallon buckets to haul corn to my feeders. Before hanging your feeder, determine a route you can use traveling to and from your feeder that will not cross the trail the hogs use getting to your bait. Once a traveling hog or sounder of hogs cuts your trail, chances are good they will immediately turn around and depart in the direction they came. Keep visibility in mind when you choose a tree from which to hang your feeder.
The sound of the feeder throwing corn serves as a dinner bell for the porkers. I set my feeder to throw corn at 5 and 8 p.m. during winter.
Trail cameras are used to determine exactly when the hogs arrive at the feeders. I set my trail camera about 3 feet up on a small tree or sapling and aim it toward the feeder. The onboard screen gives me an instant record of when the hogs hit my feeder and their size and number. By the time I decide to sacrifice a bit of sleep to hunt hogs at night, I have a very good idea of when to be in the woods.
Once we have our hogs patterned and coming nightly to our secluded spot back in the woods, we are still presented with the problem of actually seeing them when they arrive.
There are several ways to accomplish this, and I've tried most of them. Everything from rigging up a series of lights hooked to a battery and flipping a switch when the hogs are feeding to using a single flashlight has produced pork for me.
The trouble with this instant lighting of the night woods is that it often spooks hogs before they can be picked up in the crosshairs. Buckshot in a shotgun will suffice for these quick shots, but I hunt hogs for food and don't relish the idea of ruining meat.
I prefer hunting them with a bow rigged with lighted sight pins and a Hawglite mounted to the front of the bow. This light has a micro switch that attaches to the bow riser and can be active when the bow is at full draw. Hogs pay little attention to the red light which gives plenty of time to target a hog, take aim and make a good shot. The Hawglite has an adapter that facilities mounting to a rifle barrel. The light is strong enough to makes shots up to 125 yards at night.
When rifle hunting, I've found the Zeiss Duralyt scope to be very useful.
This scope has a red dot at the center of the crosshairs which can be adjusted from the off position to intensely bright. The superb light gathering capability of the Zeiss optics is a big plus for night hunting. I've used mine on moonlit nights with no additional light.
Another key element to my night hunting is a unit called a Feedlight, which is distributed by Ultramatic Feeders. The light has a built-in solar panel which keeps the battery charged and, once attached to a tree or post near the feeder, requires little or no maintenance. When the sun goes down, the Feedlight comes on and illuminates the areas just under the feeder.
While there is no season for hunting hogs in Texas, many of us collect our pork chops from the wild during the winter months. If you're having trouble seeing hogs during daylight hours, I highly recommend my method of night hunting.
Listen to Outdoors with Luke Clayton at catfishradio.com. Email Luke with outdoor news from your area via the website.
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